Akio
Akio is a Yakuza from around the area of New Reno who currently wanders the Boise Wasteland in a mad search for his lost father. For a Yakuza, he has simple tastes and has little ambition in life to rise above his conditions. Biography Life in Nevada Childhood in the Wastes Akio was conceived in 2261 from a brief fling between an unknown Yakuza and a waitress named Tomoko who worked for the Wrights in New Reno. Tomoko was on the payroll of some Yakuza in New Reno, and she had the general responsibility of “servicing” any Yakuza who asked for her. However, Tomoko has always claimed that the Yakuza that fathered Akio had wooed her, not simply asked for her services. After the conception, the Yakuza who fathered Akio skipped town and left Tomoko behind. Tomoko soon found out that she was pregnant and briefly considered having a termination. However for moral reasons, Tomoko decided to have a baby who she would raise as her own. Tomoko was lucky in that she soon found a father for her illegitimate child, an elderly Yakuza named Ryuji who was eager to have a young wife, even if she was not a virgin. Tomoko and Ryuji married in late 2261 soon before Tomoko gave birth. Akio, named after Tomoko's grandfather, was born in the winter of 2261 in a Yakuza camp outside New Reno. Although it was known Ryuji was not Akio's biological father, he promised to care for the babe as if Akio was his own son. The little boy spent the first couple years of his life around the Yakuza camp on the outskirts of New Reno. The camp was was a crowded fetid place where children would fight for food while adults would take chems and exchange stolen goods. Tomoko was rare in that she actually looked after Akio when she could, even teaching him to read. Akio grew up in this environment, and he was a lean mean child. He learned to pick his words (and fights) carefully. His best friend was a larger half-Mexican child named Juan who served as Akio's protector against larger children. Akio's young life was thrown into turmoil when his stepfather died of heart disease in 2270. Tomoko decided to go back to her job working for the Wrights in New Reno, and she was forced to leave Akio in the camp alone during the day. That led to him being even more wrapped up in the Yakuza, as both children and adults encouraged him to become a Yakuza like everyone else. Akio favorite part of the day was when the Yakuza came back from raiding to talk around the campfire. They often told stories of their exploits, often inflated for posterity’s sake. Caravaners and NCR were portrayed as slow, stupid, and cowardly. As Akio became a teenager, he began to make preparations to become a Yakuza like his stepfather and real father before him. Juan and Akio trained relentlessly with one another to improve their bodies and show the older Yakuza that they were worthy. Tomoko has dreaded this but unfortunately saw no other direction for her son. The two friends finally proved themselves when Akio was fourteen by gifting a Yakuza boss an entire chem cooler. From there, Akio became a man which meant he was tattooed for the first time and was given a Wakizashi and throwing knives. Akio would be sixteen would he would first go on a raid with other Yakuza. Until then, he was a hard worker for the more senior Yakuza acting as a courier between Yakuza and their contacts in New Reno. These courier jobs that Akio did would be the first time that he set foot in New Reno, a city so close to his home yet so far away. Akio's first foray into New Reno was one of amazement and discovery. The shining lights, the throngs of people, they all amazed Akio. He was not used to such opulence, having lived in a wasteland camp his entire life. The boy almost forgot his mission in fact but managed to snap back to reality and complete his mission in a little under a day. For the next year or so, Akio continued his courier services for the older Yakuza and at the same time went New Reno more often, most of the time accompanied by his friend Juan. The two would explore the city for days, avoiding the eyes of NCR and the local families, both of whom hated Yakuza. Akio and Juan had a lot of fun in those days. Yakuza Bruiser A short time after he turned sixteen, Akio was fully initiated by his Yakuza group. He received a tattoo and was gifted with a 10mm pistol to go with the weapons he already had. From there, he was sent on his first raid along with the his Yakuza group, called the Gopniks. That raid was on a caravan outside New Reno, and it was successful. The Gopniks were happy with Akio’s performance, and he got a good big Yakuza tattoo on his right arm. Juan got a similar tattoo, and the two promised to look after one another in their new lives as Yakuza. Akio ran with his Yakuza for about another year, raiding caravans and robbing travelers. New Reno would not be tolerant of Yakuza forever, especially the Gopniks in particular with their big camp. In 2277, the Wrights hired some mercenaries to destroy the Gopnik camp and scatter them into the wasteland. Akio’s mother Tomoko, still working for the Wrights but not as a Yakuza spy, found out about the attack and warned Akio so he could flee. Akio took this information and instead warned the Gopniks, who decided to prepare for the attack. They turned out to still be woefully unprepared. The mercenaries, funded by the Wrights and armed by NCR, wiped the floor with the weaker Yakuza. Akio fought valiantly, even sustaining injuries to his leg, but his fight was broken when he witnessed the boss and his friend Juan die in a hail of gunfire. With that, Akio turned tail and ran out of the camp he had called home for his entire life. From there, Akio initially fled and took refuge with his mother in New Reno. He laid low there for a while to recover from the shock of losing his gang and to nurse the wounds he sustained in battle. Tomoko helped nurse her son back to health when she was not working. While trying to give a reluctant Akio medicine, Tomoko decided to put him more at ease by telling him a bit about his father. Akio was very interested in this and was fascinated by his mother’s account off him: a Yakuza legend who could have united the disparate gangs together but instead left for the far north. Akio considered this story as he recovered from his injuries. At the same time, he restarted his physical training to become stronger and perhaps better equipped to win next time. Akio, after he recovered, struck back into the wasteland against the advice of his pleading mother to join another Yakuza gang. He found what he was looking for in the form of the Cashstraps, a small band of Yakuza who readily accepted young Akio into their ranks. In little less than a month, Akio had defeated the Cashstraps second in command in a duel of honor and taken his place, as well as his Desert Eagle. He proved a valuable asset to these Yakuza, a strong warrior with unwavering loyalty and a staunch devotion to the Yakuza code of conduct. For the next few years, Akio ran with the Cashstraps while also visiting his mother in New Reno more often. He split his time between the wasteland and New Reno equally since the Cashstraps went on raids infrequently. In that time, Akio became more familiar with New Reno and its people. He even made himself an on again off again girlfriend in the form of similarly aged member of the Bishop family, her name being Penelope. Akio and Penelope’s “relationship” was rocky however, as was his relationship with the rest of New Reno. After all, he had raided their caravans in the past and still did on occasion. Nevertheless, Akio got by in New Reno by keeping a low profile while he was in town. At the same time, Akio became more interested in the story of his father, the nameless Yakuza Tomoko had described. He tried to find out more about him from both Yakuza and New Reno residents but came up with nothing. Akio’s period of relative stability would not last. In 2279, the Cashstraps went to war with another Yakuza gang named the Ruby Dragons over territory, and the Cashstraps lost badly. The gang was all but destroyed, and its remnants, including Akio, were absorbed into the Ruby Dragons. The destruction of his second gang and the unexpected harshness of the Ruby Dragons broke something in Akio that was never the same again. The war of Yakuza versus Yakuza had effectively removed any reverence Akio had once held for the Yakuza code of conduct. His anxiety worsened and only got worse as the Ruby Dragons repeatedly tried to beat him into submission. His visits to New Reno became more infrequent, and he became significantly less talkative. The Ruby Dragons began falling apart only about a year after Akio was inducted. New Reno began seeing them as a major danger to caravans, and the city soon started throwing mercenaries and the occasional NCR patrol at them. The Ruby Dragons were stronger than Akio’s previous gangs, but they were by no means all powerful. After a short time, they began to buy cheap chems to improve their men’s fighting performance such as Psycho and Med-X. Akio was given both of these drugs, and they assisting in both helping in battle and staving off depression. That was for a time at least. In early 2281, the Ruby Dragons were on the edge of collapse, and Akio decided that it was time to bail. Taking lots chems and ammunition with him, Akio fled the Yakuza gang’s camp in the dead of night to New Reno, his safe haven. He expected to welcomed back by his mother until he found another Yakuza gang. That would not be the case however, as when Akio met Tomoko he was warned that the gangsters in New Reno had put a bounty on his head along with all other known Yakuza. Upon hearing that, Akio accepted some caps from his mother and fled back into the wasteland to look for more Yakuza to join up with. That was Akio's original plan, that is. After a couple days walking, Akio decided that joining another Yakuza gang would only perpetuate the toxic cycle he had put himself in. So, Akio instead decided to strike out on his own as a lone Yakuza. This turned out to be easier said than done. Living in the wasteland outside New Reno gave him respite from bounty hunters, but it did not provide any creature comforts Akio had once enjoyed. Even food and water were hard to come by. Also, Akio's recently acquired chem addiction forced him to rob any doctors or chem dealers he came across and use any caps he did not use on food or water for chems. For about or so, Akio lived a hardscrabble existence on the margins of society. He learned how to survive on his own in the desert but at the same time was nearly lost forever. New Reno Revelation In 2281, Akio had seemingly hit rock bottom. His once fearsome reputation as a Yakuza bruiser had been forgotten in favor of stories of a quiet but dangerous chem fiend who roamed the wasteland around New Reno. He had no purpose anymore, and his life seemed like an empty vessel, devoid of any real motivation to get up in the morning. Most days consisted of Akio just taking chems and scouting for his next victims. It was in the aftermath of one of Akio's raids on a caravan when he picked up some peyote cacti from out of New Reno. Having never encounter peyote before, Akio decided to sample a bit of the cacti. That was the real start of Akio's journey. The psychedelic trip Akio went on after taking the peyote was one that he would never forget. When he first took the peyote, Akio was perched on a ridge near Virginia Peak. He took some Med-X, then the peyote, and laid down underneath the stars. There, Akio had a sort of revelation he had never had before on any chem. In the dying light of the rugged Nevada sun, Akio saw twisting shapes in the sky. The shapes seemed almost serpentine at first, coiling and uncoiling as they changed colors rapidly. Over a certain time though, the shapes materialized into one form. The form was a man, imposing and titanic. Akio first felt that he should be terrified, but instead, he soon felt a pronounced sense of awe. That was when Akio finally came to the realization, the figure was focusing on him. The figure seemed to be motioning for Akio to find it. Akio was confused by this, but after some trepidation, he decided to walk towards the figure in the sky. That was when Akio took a twenty foot fall off the ridge and blacked out. He awakened the next day to find himself sprawled out on the ground, hurting but with no major injuries. As he got up, Akio made another realization: that figure he saw was his father and it wanted him to find it. What Akio took that to mean was that he needed to find his father to help resolve his issues. From what he remembered his mom saying, his father had struck out north towards Boise shortly after Akio’s conception. North it will be, Akio declared. That being said, Akio knew he was not prepared to go on a long trek into the wasteland without any significant supplies or water. So, he decided to head back into New Reno to get these things and wish his mother goodbye. With that, Akio struck out from Virginia Peak back to New Reno. Akio, remaining cautious, set about buying supplies and water as soon as he got back to New Reno. He first bought some supplies from Renesco's Pharmacy and also tried to buy a map from the store. However, it turned out the store’s last map had just been sold to Akio’s disgruntlement. Akio gathered up his supplies into a backpack, and he made his way to his mother Tomoko, who he hoped to stay with while he was gathering stock. He made his way to the Wright Estate, where he assumed his mother was still working. Akio knew his mother worked with the other washerwomen at the back of the manor. Washerwomen were there, but Tomoko herself was not. After being told Akio was looking for his mother, one of the girls said that she had briefly walked off with some young Yakuza. Akio feared the worse, readied his sword, and set off to find his mother, who the washerwoman said was with the young Yakuza somewhere in the lower levels of the Wright Estate. Akio was ready to slice and dice until he actually found his mother and the young Yakuza. The man was named Echo, and he had actually just paid Tomoko to oil up his hair properly. Akio and Echo had met briefly before when Akio was part of the Ruby Dragons, but they were now both Yakuza without a gang. Although only vaguely knowing one another, Akio and Echo managed to carry on a pleasant yet somewhat tense conversation while Tomoko oiled up Echo’s hair. The conversation started with Echo giving an overly long explanation to calm down Akio's accusatory tone. After hearing out Echo, Akio took a seat and explained to Echo and Tomoko about his experience the night before. Tomoko was in disbelief that Akio had seen his father, but Echo was following Akio's story quite closely. When Akio arrived back at the present, Echo interrupted Tomoko by commenting that he found Akio's story interesting and further interjected by telling Akio that he should follow up on his vision. Tomoko, alarmed by Akio following up on what she thought of as delusions and Echo encouraging her son, tried to appeal to her son's sense of reason, telling him the experience was just a bad trip. She begged Akio to go clean and return to New Reno to live a safe life. Akio rejected his mother and talked to Echo instead. He was pleasantly surprised to find that Echo was in a similar situation to his own and was in possession of the map that Akio had previously tried to buy. By that point, some of the Wrights came around and threw Akio, Echo, and Tomoko out of the mansion since Tomoko was just a washerwoman and the two Yakuza were definitely not supposed to be there. Upon leaving the Wright Estate, Akio and Echo continued talking while Tomoko finally gave up hope of her son turning a new leaf. Tomoko, after confirming with Akio that he was heading after his father, wished her son good health and good luck in his journey. Akio briefly considered asking his mother if he could stay with her but decided against it. So, Akio wished his mother good bye and endured a kiss on the forehead before she headed back home. Akio and Echo stayed outside the Wright Estate talking while Tomoko made her way back home. The two Yakuza conversed for a little longer until Akio asked Echo if he could exchange some chems for his map. Echo answered this with a question of his own: could he come with Akio on his journey? Then they could both make use of the map. This took Akio aback, as he did not think Echo would care. However, Akio still said Echo could come along and asked him why exactly? Echo answered, "Both of us searching for some perfect world we know we'll never find." Akio was initially confused by this but subsequently accepted Echo as a new travelling companion. Both of them were Yakuza after all, and Akio figured that two travelers would safer than one. In Search of Father New Reno to Winnemucca The next couple of days for Akio were spent planning his journey in a smoky room of a New Reno hotel. Akio and Echo spent about a week in that hotel room, doing further preparations for their trek in the northern wastes. Beside gathering supplies, this mostly consisted of pouring over Echo’s newly acquired map and arguing about the best route to Boise, their eventual destination. The first thing the pair did was review the map that they had in their possession and use it to figure out a path to their endpoint: Boise. The map was pre-War, to be specific it was a 2076 edition Stan McFeely brand road atlas. It had been well-used in the many years since the war, and the map’s previous owners had made numerous annotations to it, adding in things such as various post-War settlements and factions. Most notably, the borders of the NCR and the Legion were drawn fairly accurately along with trade routes such as the Big Circle and others. Luckily for Akio, Boise was shown also on the map, labeled "Shithole: Do Not Go There". Disregarding this, Akio and Echo set out mapping out their route to Boise. At first, Akio suggested simply trekking straight through the desert of northern Nevada and southern Oregon to go straight to Boise. He trusted his survival skills learned in the wasteland to help them traverse that large empty space between New Reno and Boise. Echo, showing some surprising common sense, flatly rejected this notion and pointed out that they would both die in that desert, with no settlements or sources of water around for miles. Akio was a little angry with this at first, but he eventually relented to Echo. From then on, the two began drawing lines between known post-War settlements and landmarks to get to Boise from New Reno. After nearly a week of disputation, the two finally figured their route: New Reno to Winnemucca to the Great Salt Lake to Twin Falls to Boise. There were a few bones of contention, as neither of them knew if Winnemucca still existed as a town, but that was the consensus nonetheless. With that, the two packed up, got some last minute supplies (and hairspray), and left New Reno behind for the wasteland. The pair of Yakuza struck out east on I-80 in mid 2281. East of New Reno, the two had few encounters besides a couple of geckos who they easily dispatched. After killing the geckos, Akio and Echo continued on for a couple days down I-80 with little incident. The high desert environment was its own adversary for the Yakuza as they trekked through Nevada. The first human encounter the pair had on I-80 was predictably hostile. About four days after leaving New Reno, Akio and Echo were nearing the pre-War town of Fernley where they hoped to hold over for a night or so. Before they could reach Fernley however, they sighted a group of raiders far away on the highway. Akio and Echo both took cover behind a crumbling highway wall. Unfortunately, the raiders had already seen the Yakuza and moved to surround them. After the pair were sufficiently surrounded, the raider boss walked into view and introduced himself as Hoi Polloi. He was a rather short man who had a taste for the finer things in life. Unfortunately for Hoi, the only “jewelry” he managed to scavenge over the years was a doll head he wore on a chain around his neck. The good stuff was all outside the desert, and Hoi preferred the lawlessness of the desert to getting any closer to NCR, severely limiting his selection. Hoi Polloi made himself known to the two Yakuza and demanded they come out from behind the ruined highway wall. Akio yelled back that they would not come out until raiders left. The raider boss responded by saying he just wanted the pair’s swords. Both Akio and Echo refused to give up their Wakizashis, and that obviously angered Hoi. With that, the raiders began to bombard the Yakuza's positions with bullets from their carbines. Neither Akio nor Echo had any sort of heavy weapons and were forced to return fire with their pistols, a Desert Eagle and a Mauser to be specific. This tense standoff lasted for nearly ten minutes until Akio had had enough. Unsheathing his Wakizashi and injecting some psycho, Akio proceeded to break cover and charge the raiders. Not to be outdone, Echo followed Akio into battle. It turned out that Hoi Polloi’s raider gang only consisted of five people, meaning that the Yakuza had vastly overestimated them. Winnemucca to the Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake to Twin Falls Twin Falls to Boise Life in Boise Personality Akio is a quiet anxious man who ran with multiple Yakuza gangs before finding his true calling: discovering the identity of his father in the Boise Wasteland. Akio was always the outsider of the various Yakuza he ran with in his younger years. However, Akio more than made up for his quiet unsociable nature by being a dangerous fighter, a practical thinker, and a zealous adherent to the Yakuza code of conduct. He also adopted the slang of the New Reno area. However, his anxious nature and the destruction of the gangs he ran with eventually caused Akio to fall into despair. He started taking chems and became a lone Yakuza wandering the wasteland. Akio’s self-destructive behavior continued until he had a sort of epiphany in the desert where he decided to look for his father. Akio’s chance meeting with Echo and his journey to Boise have given him some meaning again. Currently, Akio remains rather anxious with a rather rigid temper. Akio’s quiet practical nature has persisted even though he takes quite a few chems currently. The chems, mostly Med-X and occasionally Psycho, have mostly been taken to assist in combat (at the least, that was how it started). He prefers utility to aesthetics, buying equipment and weapons based almost purely upon their effectiveness. When traveling alone, Akio usually takes the opportunity to train or shoot up. Appearance Akio is ethnically Japanese, the result of a love affair between a Yakuza and a waitress working as an informant for Yakuza in New Reno. He is a short man but is quite muscular, the result of years of training. His muscles (and tattoos) are seen quite plainly due to Akio’s simple dress, a large tunic emblazoned with the Rising Sun Flag with a mostly bare chest. Akio also has a cloak in case the sun overpowers him. His face is often obscured by a large mask made up of leather strips and goggles. This mask is something Akio puts on every morning, and often he becomes sloppy, with hair sticking out of the mask. Other notable features of Akio’s appearance include some dogtags he wears around his neck taken from murdered NCR troopers and his Wakizashi he wears at his side. The rest of Akio’s small weapons are hidden within his clothing. Family *'Unknown' - An unknown wandering Yakuza who impregnated numerous women from Boise to The Glow. Location and identity currently unknown. **'Tomoko' - Washerwoman working for the Wrights in New Reno, a hard worker and a loving mother, a bit oblivious to Akio's various problems and run-ins with authorities. ***'Akio' - Yakuza from New Reno, chem addict, searching for his father. **'Alexandra Hernandez' - Deceased waitress from Dayglow, a fiery irrational woman, possibly mentally ill. ***'Elliot Hernandez' - NCR bureaucrat living in Shady Sands, adopted at a young age by a wealthy family, a rather boring man, hair trigger temper. ***'Naomi Hernandez' - Prostitute living in The Boneyard, chem addict, grew up on the street, dull to the world **'Cheryl Buchanan' - Deceased caravaner from Whistlers Grove, lived a Bohemian lifestyle, self-centered, imaginative problem solver. ***'Hiro Buchanan' - Star Paladin of the 1st Company of the Idaho BOS, the most decorated soldier in the chapter, extremely bigoted against both wastelanders and mutants. **'Hannah Forsyth' - Farmer's daughter living in Grant's Pass, daring and stubborn, ostracized from her community for being a single mother, looking for a purpose. ***'Jazz Forsyth' - Adopted son of General Homer Jay from Grant's Pass, teenage hell-raiser, impersonal, yearns for understanding but clings to seclusion. Equipment Akio’s primary weapons are the Wakizashi and throwing knives, the standard for any Yakuza. Other weapons in Akio’s arsenal include spiked knuckles, a Desert Eagle, and a knife. Akio rarely makes use of his Desert Eagle and cherishes the gun to some degree. Quotes By About Category:New California Republic